


Leaving On A Jet Plane (Or Not)

by jeahtastic



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, Kylo & Rey are Best Cousins Forever, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-16
Updated: 2016-01-16
Packaged: 2018-05-14 09:27:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5738389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeahtastic/pseuds/jeahtastic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This year is their last hurrah, so to speak. Hux, Kylo, and Phasma only have one semester left. Thus the theme for the party is The Dark Side Trio: The Farewell Tour. (Kylo insisted on a "squad" name and of course rips off a Pink Floyd album, the pretentious fuck.)</p><p>College!AU. The Dark Side Trio is graduating, Rey is planning their Christmas/Farewell Party, Hux and Kylo are still very much emotionally constipated, and Rey sort of fixes that, too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Leaving On A Jet Plane (Or Not)

Hux exits the East Building of Corellia University after a particularly draining office session with Professor Snoke. Although he loved the Rise and Fall of Hegemonies class he took with him last year, he's beginning to regret asking him to be his thesis advisor. Maybe he doesn't need to graduate with honors after all.

 

The campus is technically a smoke-free zone but being based in Manhattan has its advantages. Hux strolls across the street and down the block, stopping on the curb in front of a pretentious coffeehouse. It's a smoking spot he's rather fond of.

 

He turns his back to the wind -how he hates winter on the east coast- and lights his cigarette after a couple of tries. Barely through his first drag and the cigarette is suddenly plucked from his fingers. 

 

"Those will kill you, you know," a low, familiar voice rumbles in his ear and he hates the pleased rush of heat that runs through him. 

 

"So I've heard," Hux turns to see Kylo dragging on his stolen cigarette. His unruly curls are stuffed under a wool cap that inexplicably has two fluffy pom-poms dangling on strings down the sides.

 

Kylo smirks, smoke curling around his lips, and leans in. He tastes like warm coffee and an ashtray. Hux scrunches his nose like he doesn't love it.

 

"What are you doing here?" Kylo flicks the ash off the end. "Thought you had office hours with Snoke."

 

"I did," Hux pulls his overcoat tighter around him. "It ended...early."

 

"Mm," Kylo drops the cig, complete waste, and crushes it with his boot. "So you left early."

 

"Yeah." Even though it wasn't a question.

 

"Is he trying to convince you to take that government job again?"

 

"It's more an apprenticeship. And it's not government. Some sort of interest group," Hux shrugs. "Could be interesting."

 

"Lobbying on behalf poor, defenseless corporations?"

 

"Probably," Hux scoffs. "I'd be good at it."

 

Kylo smiles. "Yeah, you would be."

 

Hux shoves his hands deeper into his coat pockets and shuffles from foot to foot to keep warm. 

 

Kylo eyes him for a second and then unravels his scarf. He loops it around Hux's neck, tucking the ends in under his chin. 

 

Hux never knows how to react when Kylo gets like this. He clears his throat, looking away. "I'm not that cold. But thanks."

 

"Well, just in case," Kylo fidgets with his sleeves, the edge of his jacket. Then blurts out, "Are you gonna take it?"

 

"Take what?"

 

"The job. For Snoke."

 

Hux meets his eyes. "I don't know. Haven't decided yet."

 

"Oh," Kylo presses his lips together. "Do you know where it'll be?"

 

"Think it's based in Texas or something."

 

Kylo is quiet for a long moment. Then he's pulling Hux against his chest, mumbling something into the scarf he just gave away.

 

Hux wraps his arms around Kylo's neck. "What was that?"

 

"I said," he sounds clearer this time, chin tucked against Hux's shoulder. "That Texas is kinda far away."

 

"Yeah, it is." Hux is hit with a sudden ache of homesickness, which is silly since he hasn't even left yet. His arms tighten around Kylo. "I have class soon."

 

Kylo untangles himself. "Me too, let's go."

 

They walk side by side back to the East Building, shoulders brushing.

 

"Oh, don't forget," Hux says. "The party is this saturday."

 

Kylo groans. "You sure we can't skip that this year?"

 

"You rather go to your family's?"

 

"Point," Kylo sighs. He scrunches his nose. "Think my cousin is bringing her friends."

 

"Dear god, not those dweebs."

 

"At least Phasma's coming, too."

 

"She's not bringing her groupies." Hux's tone left no room for argument. Phasma is one of those lucky people who is naturally gifted at everything athletic, but it's fencing where she truly excels. Won some sort of world championship back in  _ high school _ , for fuck's sake. Naturally she's the president of the fencing club, which apparently meant all the members follow her around worshipping the ground she walks on, waiting for orders like minions.

 

"No, she has been expressly forbidden," Kylo agrees. "It's even worse since they got those matching t-shirts."

 

"The whites one, right?"

 

"Yeah, with 'Our Beloved Leader' on it over a picture of her face."

 

"God, I thought someone was being satirical until I saw the whole pack of them at once."

 

"Sounds like something you would want, honestly."

 

"No it doesn't," Hux shoves at Kylo, who catches his wrist and holds onto it. Hux tangles their fingers together. "It's creepy. Like a cult."

 

"Her little army. She calls them her 'Troopers'."

 

Hux throws back his head and laughs. They're stopped in front of the lecture hall to Hux's next class, some last minute bullshit poli-sci course he needs to graduate. "Well, this is me." He pulls his hand away only for it to be yanked back.

 

"Maybe I'll sit in on this one." Kylo says to the floor. 

 

"Oh really? Developed a sudden interest in the political economy, did you?"

 

"Maybe. Whatever, it's senior year. My next class has optional attendance anyway."

 

Hux raises an eyebrow but wordlessly drags Kylo in with him.

 

Between Kylo's presence and his texts (mostly consisting of the crying and skull emojis), Hux is thoroughly distracted for the next hour.

 

He couldn't help stealing glances at Kylo out the corner of his eye, studying the freckles that litter his face, the profile of his ridiculous nose. He wants to commit them to memory. He's afraid he can't.

 

* * *

 

For the past three years, Hux somehow ended up hosting an annual holiday party. It began as a pathetic little gathering of people who had nowhere else to go: family far away, no family at all, or in Hux's case, family that simply didn't care either way so fuck them.

 

That first year it was held in Hux's apartment, a modest studio (way, way) uptown that fit the handful of losers who showed up perfectly. It was just Hux and Kylo, Phasma, and some members (nerds!) from Hux's chess club. Drunk off their first taste of freedom and copious amounts of alcohol, Hux and Kylo stumbled into a night of confessions and sloppily making out. It was embarrassing.

 

The second year it was held in the fencing club meeting room, courtesy of Phasma's presidential status. It was barely an improvement over his apartment, but at least it wasn't a five floor walk-up. More people showed up, mainly Phasma's groupies, and some of Kylo's co-workers from the pretentious coffeehouse where he took some shifts.

 

In the third year, the three of them had just turned twenty-one and by all means should've held it in a dive bar like regular people. But Kylo's little cousin had just enter her first year as a wide eyed freshman and Uncle Luke sorta forced him to keep an eye on her, which apparently didn't mean "sneak her into a dive bar". (They did, eventually, and it was worth it just to see her almost start a bar fight defending some lady who had too much.) 

 

Luckily Hux and Rey got along like two very organized, competent peas in a pod, which irritates Kylo to no end. With her help they managed to throw a halfway decent party, somehow accommodating even more people, this time in Hux and Kylo's one bedroom apartment. Yeah, they moved in together. It was for convenience. Hux's parents had stopped helping him out financially and Kylo's were over-compensating due to their rocky marriage so whatever, it made sense logistically. They're not lovey-dovey ready to adopt ten gay babies, shut up Phasma. 

 

This year is their last hurrah, so to speak. Hux, Kylo, and Phasma only have one semester left. Thus the theme for the party is The Dark Side Trio: The Farewell Tour. (Kylo insisted on a "squad" name and of course rips off a Pink Floyd album, the pretentious fuck.)

 

"And there we go," Rey chirps, giving an enthusiastic smack to the last decoration stuck on the wall. It's a print out of The Trio, obviously ripped from one of their instagrams, with...flower crowns photoshopped on their heads? 

 

"What is that even supposed to be? Actually, what is any of this?" Kylo throws his arms out, encompassing the whole place. Their one bedroom has been transformed into a mess of Christmas decorations and strange collages of their faces. 

 

"I have the same question, Rey." Hux examines a photo of him with a candy cane sticker stuck suggestively on his face. 

 

Kylo peers at it over his shoulder. "I'll bet you twenty dollars someone's gonna draw a nasty thought bubble within the first, I don't know, ten minutes of the party."

 

"Not much of a bet, since you're gonna be the one defiling my face."

 

Kylo smirks. "In more ways than one."

 

"Oh god!" Rey throws her hands up. "Focus, you guys, the party's in an hour. Any changes need to be made  _ now _ ."

 

"Look, Rey," Hux gestures to the room at large. "I guess we're just confused about what the theme is."

 

Rey holds up a finger. "One, Christmas and the holiday spirit. Obviously."

 

Kylo sucks on a candy cane. "Obviously."

 

Hux rolls his eyes.

 

"Two," Rey flicks up a second finger. "It's about  _ you guys _ . And Phasma but she's not here right now so I'll repeat my speech later."

 

'Speech?' Kylo mouths.

 

Rey continues, unaware. "I know we only have like, two years together at Corellia, which really sucks, but I think that just makes the time we have together all the more precious." 

 

She fiddles with one of the mini-buns she has on her head. "And last year, my first year, was kinda tough. I've never been away from home before and I didn't really know anyone. I wasn't even sure what I wanted to study--"

 

"Not like you listened about that, anyway," Kylo snipes.

 

"I didn't wanna be a literature major!"

 

"I offered to teach you! I can show you the ways of Kafka!"

 

Hux groans. "You and your Kafka."

 

Rey closes her eyes in a silent prayer for strength. "I'm  _ happy _ with engineering."

 

"You know," Hux says. "If I wasn't a poli-sci major that's what I would've picked, too."

 

Rey looks in disbelief. "Really?"

 

Kylo waves his hand dismissively. "He just wants to build giant monuments to himself."

 

"How dare you," Hux pouts. "No, I wanted to build useful stuff."

 

"Oh, like civil engineering!" Rey pipes.

 

"Like some giant weapon, probably,” Kylo crows. “Working for like, the defense department.”

 

“That was just a-- a--" Hux flails his hand around. “--a passing idea!”

 

“A great, big, humongous, phallic weapon,” Kylo stands up and makes exaggerated pelvic thrusts framed by both hands. “Shooting off into space!”

 

“Oh you fucking jerk--"

 

“You're both jerks!” Rey stands up. “I'm trying to make a heartfelt speech--"

 

“It's starting to sound like our eulogies--”

 

“Seriously, Rey, we're still gonna be living in the city for a while.” Hux agrees.

 

Kylo pauses in his thrusting. “We are? I mean,  _ you _ are?”

 

“What do you mean?” Hux frowns.

 

“I mean,” Kylo stares at him. “What about that job? In Texas?”

 

“Oh yeah...that. I'm still thinking on it.”

 

Rey looks back and forth between them, trying to stay as still and quiet as possible. 

 

“And...what are your thoughts?”

 

Hux huffs out a breath. “I don't know, okay? I didn't know yesterday or last week and I still don't know now.”

 

“It's been months--”

 

“I know!  _ I know. _ ”

 

“Well, that's just--" Kylo runs a hand through his hair. “That's just fine.” He grabs his coat and storms out of the apartment.

 

The slam of the front door is loud in the suddenly quiet room. 

 

Rey's eyes are wide as saucers as she turns back to Hux. “He okay?”

 

“Yeah, he's just,” Hux sighs. “Throwing another one of his tantrums.”

 

“You guys’ve had this fight before, huh?”

 

“I wouldn't say fight. We've talked about it. This is...new.”

 

Rey nods, wise beyond her years. “I'll talk to him. Tonight, at the party.”

 

Hux scoffs. “Good luck with that.”

 

“I don't need luck,” she grins. “I'm his cousin.”

 

* * *

 

The party is in full swing by 10pm. Feels like everyone's just looking for an excuse to drink earlier and earlier.

 

This being his apartment, Kylo is sort of forced to attend. He sulks on the couch, red cup in hand, giving off clear _fuck off_ vibes. Doesn't stop one of Phasma's drunk groupies from trying to talk his ear off, though. It's only a matter of time before Kylo notices he's wearing a “Beloved Leader" Phasma t-shirt and throws him out the window.

 

Hux eyes Kylo from a corner of the room, three red cups in himself. 

 

Phasma sighs audibly, leaning casually against the wall like some Amazonian goddess. “You boys had a fight again?”

 

Hux shrugs. 

 

“Well, your room's right over there,” she gestures with her cup to the general direction of his bedroom. “Go and--" she scrunches her nose. “--fix it, like you guys normally do.”

 

Hux aims a glare. “It's not that easy.” He looks away. “Not this time, at least.”

 

Phasma gives him a soft look. She gives her cup to an ever present minion with instructions to bring her another, then glancing at Hux, “make that two". 

 

The minion scurries off with a “yes, m'am!”

 

“M'am?” Hux asks. 

 

“I like it,” Phasma puffs up her chest, as if she needs to look any more imposing. “Makes me feel like a commander of some sort.”

 

Hux snorts. 

 

“Was the fight about the job?” 

 

Hux reflexively wants to deflect, change the subject, outright yell “I don't wanna talk about it". But maybe he's been pushing back this conversation for too long. Scratch that, he's  _ definitely _ been avoiding it to the point where it's a detriment to his relationship, as evident by how Kylo hasn't once looked at him during this entire party.

 

The minion returns with two cups, which Phasma takes with a smile. The minion floats away with a happy sigh.

 

“Disgusting,” Hux shakes his head. He downs his current drink and takes the one Phasma is offering. 

 

They bump their plastic cups together.

 

“What are we toasting?” Phasma asks.

 

Hux looks down into his cup. “I don't know.”

 

“To…” her eyebrows raise. “Your new job?”

 

“What? No,” Hux shakes his head. “I don't know.”

 

“I think you do, darling.”

 

Hux nods.

 

* * *

 

Kylo is gazing morosely at an exact spot on the floor between his knees. He's been fixed on that spot for a good hour now when his view is suddenly blocked by an over enthusiastic hand waving inches from his face. Rey. 

 

He glares up into her perky face and it's like they're kids all over again.

 

“Hi there,” she grins. 

 

“What?”

 

“I just wanted some company.”

 

“Then go hang out with your friends.”

 

“They're busy at the moment.”

 

Kylo glances around her to see one of them -Finn, he's guessing- giving the shaggy haired one a piggy-back ride as they both try to chug double fistfuls of beers. A ring of spectators has gathered around them, chanting “FINN! POE! FINN! POE!”

 

He frowns up at Rey, who shrugs *whatcha gonna do*?

 

She shoves aside the sleeping groupie -is that one of those damn cult t-shirt?- and takes a seat on the couch. She takes a deep breath, prepared to make a Statement--

 

“And I'm gonna stop you right there,” Kylo holds a hand up. “Whatever you have planned, drop it. I don't wanna talk about it.”

 

Rey deflates, mouth snapping shut. They sit in silence for a moment, Kylo worrying at the edge of his cup, Rey pretending very hard that she's not scheming of another way to get her cousin to open up and stop being an emo brat for one second.

 

She perks up. “Let's go for a smoke.”

 

“You don't smoke.”

 

“Not cigarettes.”

 

Kylo whips around, eyes wide. Shit, he's seriously failing Uncle Luke even harder than he thought.

 

“I mean, it'll be my first time. With weed.”

 

Relief floods his system. “There's not gonna be a first time. You're gonna straight edge your way through college with a 4.0 GPA and then go build bridges or whatever, as planned.”

 

She rolls her eyes. “Whose freaking plan is that?”

 

“Your dad's.”

 

“My dad still reminds me to look both ways before I cross the street every time he calls. Which is like, all the time.”

 

“It's a good thing to remember.”

 

“Fine then,” Rey sighs. “I guess I'll just have to get it from someone else. I met this guy in the park the other day, he looked pretty trustworthy.”

 

Kylo narrows his eyes. “You're not even trying.”

 

“But it's gonna work, right?”

 

Kylo groans. “Alright. Wait here.” 

 

Rey bounces excitedly in her seat. 

 

Kylo retrieves the little box he keeps in his room, tucked away in his sock drawer. He motions for Rey to follow him, grabbing their coats on the way out.

 

Luckily they're on the top floor, so the roof is only another flight up. He uses a cinderblock to keep the access door ajar and makes his way to the waist high ledge. 

 

Rey shivers in her coat with the fur hood, eyes bright like a pain-in-the-ass eskimo. 

 

Kylo rolls the joint between his fingers and hesitates. “I can't believe I'm doing this. Uncle Luke is gonna kill me.”

 

Rey rolls her eyes and plucks it from his hand. She digs through his little stash box for a lighter and then flicks it on, holding it to the joint held between her lips. She takes a long inhale, holds it, and then coughs her lungs out. 

“Oh my god,” Kylo looks scandalized. “You've done this before!”

 

Rey laughs between her coughing fit. “Of course, you doofus, have you seen my friends?”

 

Oh yeah, those piggy-backing beer chuggers. Still. “Traitor!”

 

“I'm still planning on getting a 4.0 and building bridges,” she snorts. “Or whatever.”

 

Kylo snatches the joint from her and takes a drag. He releases it with a little more grace.

 

They stand in companionable silence, passing the J back and forth until surprisingly, it is Kylo who says, “I don't want to be selfish.”

 

Rey frowns at him. “How are you being selfish?”

 

Kylo sighs. “About Hux. About his job.” He looks out over the city, not much of a view from his shitty building but it's still nice. “I don't want to be the one to hold him back.”

 

Rey extinguishes what's left of the joint, puts the clip back into the stash box. “But what are you holding him back from?”

 

“I don't know. His dream job?”

 

She wrinkles her nose. “Is it?”

 

He shrugs. “How am I supposed to know when he never wants to talk about it?”

 

Rey is quiet for beat. “What do  _ you _ want?”

 

Kylo's lips freeze around an automatic ‘I don't know’. Because truth is, he does. “I want him to stay. Stay in New York. Stay with me.”

 

Rey watches the traffic inch along below them, bright yellow taxis like little toy cars. She puffs out a laugh. “Remember that time you gave me chicken pox?”

 

“I didn't  _ give _ it to you. You were going through that phase where you licked all my toys to spite me or something. You're lucky you didn't get something worse.”

 

“It wasn't to  _ spite _ you. I thought they might taste like candy.”

 

“Why?!”

 

“Because Aunt Leia had given me this toy computer that you could take apart and rebuild, like for educational purposes, but all the parts were made of candy.”

 

“That's the most goddamn awful toy idea I've ever heard.”

 

“Well, they were all recalled soon after I got it. Apparently some kid choked on a piece?”

 

“Of course.”

 

“Yeah,” Rey grins. “But I'd eaten the whole thing before your mom could take it back.”

 

Kylo cackles. “Oh god, I remember now. Your dad almost had a heart attack, like you were gonna spontaneously start choking  _ after _ eating the whole thing.”

 

They both laugh until tears come out. Rey wipes at her eyes. “You were so worried when I had the chicken pox.”

 

“Guilt-ridden, probably,” Kylo glances at her. “Those  _ were _ my toys that you licked.”

 

Rey nods. “And you fetched me anything I wanted while I was stuck in bed. Like I had my own servant. Which was pretty cool to eight year old me. Mighty fifth grader Kylo brought to his knees.”

 

“Wouldn't go that far. I was like a dignified butler.”

 

“But that's just it, I keep forgetting you're only two years older than me.”

 

“Thanks,” Kylo says wrly.

 

“No, I mean like, you were also so responsible. I know my dad's always telling you to look after me. Don't deny it.”

 

Kylo closes his mouth.

 

“And you always have. I mean, in your own way. And that's all you can do sometimes, you know? Be there for them,” she looks at him. “And hope for the best.”

 

Kylo sniffs. He'd forgotten his hat and now his wind tousled hair makes him look like a sad cat. 

 

The roof door screeches behind them and they turn to find Hux halfway out the stairwell. 

 

“Oh,” he says with surprise. “Sorry, I'll just--”

 

“No, wait!” Rey dashes towards him. “I was going anyway, kinda chilly, bye!” She slips past him and disappears downstairs. 

 

Hux pauses on the threshold. Kylo gives him a crooked smile, which Hux returns. 

 

He makes his way across the roof and stands besides Kylo. After a moment, he pulls out a pack of cigarettes. “So.”

 

Kylo looks at him. “So.”

 

Hux taps out a cig, lights it, breathes it in. “I'll stay.”

 

“What?”

 

“I'll stay,” Hux turns to him. “I'll stay in New York.”

 

“No!”

 

Hux squints. “No?”

 

“No, I mean,” Kylo scrubs his hands through his mop of hair. “I mean I want you to go.”

 

“The fuck?”

 

“Let me finish. I want you to go…if that's what you want,” he squares his shoulders. “I want you to do whatever makes you happy.”

 

“Alright, fine. So I'll stay.”

 

“Ugh, I'm trying not to be selfish here for once.”

 

“Well sorry to burst your little 'character growth' bubble then, because I want to stay.”

 

Kylo is flabbergasted. “Why?”

 

“ _ Why? _ ” Hux scoffs. “Because I love you, you son of a bitch.”

 

Kylo is speechless. This is the first time he's ever heard that from Hux (the declaration of love, he's heard SOB plenty before), which is more than a little pathetic considering it's almost been four years. “God, we have some serious issues.”

 

“That's what you have to say to me?”

 

Kylo pulls him close, taking his cigarette and flicking it right over the side of the roof.

 

“Oh come on--"

 

Kylo crushes their mouths together, burying his fingers in Hux's hair, soft and unstyled for once. He clutches at Hux's lower back, pressing them together, trying to get them as physically close as possible. He wants to live in this man, breathe him in, every single day if possible.

 

They break apart for air, foreheads touching, steaming up the space between them. 

 

Kylo cradles Hux's face in his hands. “Please stay.”

 

A huge smile lights up Hux's face, like he can't help himself, and Kylo kisses him until they're both breathless again. 

 

“Okay,” Hux pants.

 

Kylo sneaks another kiss, chaste. “I love you.”

  
Hux smiles. “I know.”

**Author's Note:**

> Was trying to wrap up my other kylux fic and then banged this out instead. [Rey's *whatcha gonna do* shrug.] Please let me know of any typos/grammar issues, this has not been beta'd. hmu on [tumblr](jeahtastic.tumblr.com) ♥


End file.
